For my unit 2 prototype I’m planning on making a very basic version of the online questionnaire I’m planning. I’ve been learning PHP so that I can put the whole thing into a MySQL database and it will be searchable. We’re doing a show at the house gallery in December. I’m planning on showing this basic prototype then. Clearly I want to present something a lot more developed for the final show. But I’ll get to that.

I’ve just had a quick review of the questionnaire in the show in August. I’ve broken the questions down in to three categories. These are as follows:

Common day to day usage

1 – At a rough estimate, how often do you say the word all on any given day?
2 – When using the word all, how often do you use it in a completely logical manner? How often do you use it as a rough figure of speech?
3 – What proverbs can you think of which use the word all?
4 – Do you think the word all, of itself means much, or do you think it needs the context of a sentence sitting with it?
5 – If you were to leave it all behind, what would you take with you?

Perception

6 – When you hear the word all, what immediate impressions come to mind?
7 – Does all imply wholeness, completeness, both or neither of these things?
8 – How much do you think the common perception of the word all has changed over the past hundred years? How about over the last thousand years?

All as an abstract concept outside of language

9 – What is the opposite of all?
10 – Where is all’s centre? Do you think this question makes sense? In which contexts do you think it might or might not make sense?
11 – When you consider what might (or might not) be beyond the finite, yet expanding universe, how do you feel?
12 – Do you think that whatever is or isn’t beyond the universe is part of all? In other words, do you think this unknown is nothing, a total void, and if so, is that void part of all?

I think I might try to expand these questions so there are fifteen. Three of each. That would mean there was a pleasing symmetry. Maybe that’s unnecessary. I want a bit of structure though, and an equal number of questions per section feels more structured. I was expecting to have more to say here, but I don’t. Maybe it’s just late and I want to go to bed.

The next step, then, is to develop the visual accompaniment. My plan for the prototype is to make a flash animation or illustration of the word all to accompany each question. I think this will be simple and effective. It’s not how i see the final piece working (I want that to have more detail and more interactivity) but it’ll be a step in the right direction in the short term.